G-Snarls

MLBTR: Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com tweets that it is a fait accompli that Brian McCann will be playing for a new team in 2014 due to the presence of Evan Gattis and Christian Bethancourt in Atlanta as well as the Braves' tight budget.

The thing is ARod is hitting well enough they're probably better off with him. Jeter is completely trashed, Wells and Overbay have regressed, and Yooukilis hasn't played since when???

Love Delabar

Too late for Stroman Next year...

But how complete of a hitter does he become? Edwin-esque? Or Adam Dunn-ish?

Rangers have lost 9 of 12 Ron Washington getting twitchy...

And, um, D'Arnaud

You want what, Pillar and Arencibia in there today?

A J Burnett in a shouting match with his short stop Barmes today after a ball got past him Will try to find video link

Angels (C. Wilson - L) @ Blue Jays (R. Dickey - R) Gametime Forecast: 78°F • Drizzle • 29%PoP Dome probably closed Edwin still hurt 1. J.B. Shuck (L) LF 2. Erick Aybar (S) SS 3. Mike Trout ® CF 4. Josh Hamilton (L) DH 5. Mark Trumbo ® 1B 6. Kole Calhoun (L) RF 7. Hank Conger (S) C 8. Grant Green ® 2B 9. Andrew Romine (S) 3B 1. Jose Reyes (S) SS 2. Rajai Davis ® LF 3. Brett Lawrie ® 3B 4. Adam Lind (L) 1B 5. Moises Sierra ® RF 6. Mark DeRosa ® DH 7. Ryan Goins (L) 2B 8. Anthony Gose (L) CF 9. Josh Thole (L) C

I suppose the Jeter news deserved its own thread but heard news of both simultaneously

Re Jeter: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/yankees-ss-jeter-done-ankle-204616192--mlb.html

Re Edwin: http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/toronto-blue-jays-edwin-encarnacion-may-be-done-for-year-with-wrist-injury/

Per multiple sources

Yeah, OK, so I wish I was still in this thing. LOL.

And Rajai "Ruth" Davis is batting second against a not so crafty lefty Just sayin'...

Just a heads up - Edwin out of the lineup AGAIN

Benefit-of-retrospect-useless-repeated-annoying-rant warning... Nothing would have helped this team more than having signed Darvish 2 off seasons ago, and therefore having had no need to trade for R A Dickey this past season. We'd now have Darvish, Syndergaard and D'Arnaud, and Arencibia might have lost his job in July. F me. Sigh...

We obviously need some new baseball-related material to discuss on here Yeesh

Enough on the "physical comparison" thing and the name calling guys. Be done with it.

Did AA got to Japan to see Darvish?

Here's the truth: 1. AA isn't going anywhere, not in the next year or two anyway. You might as well accept that, whether you like what he's done so far or not. 2. He has invested too much of Rogers' money, and traded away too many prospects to back off from what he has for a major league team right now. He is not going to tear this team down and start all over, not right now. 3. He will make another push for glory in 2014/2015 by acquiring more major league talent, in hopes of making this team in to a contender in that time frame. This will probably involve a free agent signing or two and a trade that might see another top prospect or two going away. This plan might work at it might not, but that's what he's going to do. We all need to hope that upgrading at catcher is a top priority and that he does it. (for the record I say JPA is gone this off season - AA is slow to dump players but he has shown with Snider and Bonifacio that he is willing to cut ties eventually) 4. To be a winner in 2014 we need at least a couple of tweaks, some luck, better health, and some step-up or comeback performances by at least a couple of members of the starting pitching staff. (I'd like it to be Brandon Morrow and Kyle Drabek personally) That's it. After the next two years, we have either had: A) A successful run, team does well, makes money, in which case he (hopefully) starts selectively trading aging/expensive players to make the team younger and help maintain success or The disaster continues, attendance starts to fall, in which case either he is fired or he is forced to trade away every player with any trade value in order to rebuild the whole thing

Yep. Your 4th OF usually gets a lot of playing time. Not just for injuries, but for pitcher matchups and sometimes just days off even if your regulars are healthy. It's a more important position on the team than some would think.

Yep AA has said in interviews that Reyes was brought up later in the deal. It started with the pitchers. If he had decided to keep Escobar I don't know what the trade would have looked like. I like to think we got *something* for Escobar but it may have been nothing. Or Mark Buerhle. Or Bonifacio (which is worse than nothing). LOL